SOPHIA: THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL, UNDEMOCRATIC, UNWISE, UNAMERICAN.
AND SO ARE INTRUSIONS OF GOD IN AMERICAN OFFICIALDOM. THE IMPERIAL MECHANISM OF IT ALL IN ATHENS, ROME AND THE LIKE.

Abstract:

The Pledge of Allegiance and the intrusion of God in public life are gross violations of the laic and secular US Constitution. Those intrusions are intimately tied with the psychology of building a world empire, as they were in imperial Rome and Nazi Germany. The same hubris of divine origin befell the Athenian democracy. Athens thought of herself as "Under God", so got destroyed. The same explosive mix of mythology with politics should have the same consequence, namely making "WE THE PEOPLE" so stupid that total destruction will ensue. The Founding Fathers of the USA had carefully avoided that pitfall.

Overview:

Several sociological characteristics of imperial Rome became official in America since 1954 CE. Every morning millions of American children, standing at attention in unison, hands on their hearts, like tiny Roman legionnaires, "pledge allegiance to the flag ... under God." "God" appeared, all over American institutions, as if America was becoming a church. The US Presidency, the Congress, the Senate, the judicial system, the currency itself all got painted with "God", and oaths to "God". Who is this "God"? Pledging allegiance to what? How come neither "God" nor "allegiance" is found in the US Constitution? How come only imperial Rome, feudality, and Nazism had them before?

These new ways are such an explicit contradiction with the US Constitution, and the first amendment of the Constitution, that one may consider today's America to be unconstitutional. One needs to distinguish between this new America and the one the Founding Fathers who drafted the US Constitution intended. So we will call this new, unconstitutional America, "NEO CONSERVATIVE AMERICA". Not surprisingly, half a century of brain washing with "God" and pledging allegiance has led to power in Washington self described "Neo Conservatives". Neo Conservatives have established a plan for world control UNDER American leadership called the "Project for a New American Century". Part of the "Project" is now operational in the Middle East. Neo Conservatives live from and by mentally controlling the mind of the American population, with particular attention to children.

Pledges of allegiance and God madness were conducive to the follies which seized Rome and Nazi Germany. Same problems, same solution. When people become dogs, make sure they pledge allegiance. As old Rome transmogrified into the new, imperial and fascist Rome, God and pledges were instituted to enforce notions of political, philosophical, and social correctness compatible with imperialism and fascism. It started quietly, but, within a few centuries of the introduction of pledging in Rome, people who obstinately refused to pledge allegiance were executed. The Nazis, those enthusiastic students of Imperial Rome, followed that example to the best of their abilities.

Hitler's Third Reich was all about pledging allegiance (the "Fuehrer Prinzip"), but most Germans, including the army, refused to do so. So Hitler turned to the pledging of children (see below). That was a breakthrough in the tools fascism uses that even imperial Rome did not think about: MAKE THE CHILDREN PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE. Hitler's Third Reich was also put "Under God" as much as possible. Even the Swastika was a divine symbol. Brandishing "God" is perfect for those rulers who do not want to answer important questions. The Nazis asked for the help of God continuously. "So Help me God" was ubiquitous among Nazis. True, they needed it, with their Project for a New German Millennium.

Pledging is antinomic to democracy. It is actually an absolute contradiction. FREE PEOPLE DO NOT PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE. Only vassals pledge allegiance, as more Americans would know, if they had studied history. The (better educated) thinkers who drafted the US Constitution knew this. The whole revolution they conducted was precisely about not pledging allegiance to higher authority, even of the mythological kind. Those US thinkers avoided "established religion" explicitly and rigorously. To "ordain and establish" the Constitution in their age, of the people, the drafters of the US Constitution had to exclude all other factors, in particular mythology.

Official calls to God, various official oaths to a divinity, proud assertions that God favors the USA, are not just insults to the US Constitution. They make civilization go the wrong way, they are a bad example to the whole planet, and are calls to have American children take on the world in a struggle between Good and Evil, with America as axiomatically Good, and the rest of the world as Evil and unwilling. Allegiance and God madness have already changed the minds of many Americans, and help explain the drift between America and the rest of the world. Moreover, they give contextual respect to all those who, worldwide, having pledged allegiance to whatever strike their fancy, kill for a flag, and commit mass murder in the name of whichever God they please. If America goes to bomb "under God" so can other fanatics, with their own, one and only true God. Claiming to be "under God" invites a "mine is bigger than yours" game unbecoming a democracy.

If all those violations of the very principles of the American republic are viewed as a "small price to pay for unification," as a US Supreme Court judge lightly put it in 2004, one wonders what a large price would be. To put a republic "under God" is a disease, be it in Rome, Iran, America, or Hitler's Third Reich. When Athens succumbed from complications of that same disease, a form of hubris, it took 22 centuries for the idea of democracy to recover. Is that what America wants?

The Athenian republic was also "under God," and it
was a capital crime to believe otherwise. As a result
of this hallucination, the Athenian democracy took on
the world, committed horrendous crimes, got half annihilated
in the backlash, and did not recover enough to be spared
millennia of fascist rule (under Macedonia, then Rome,
etc.). The very principle of one man, one vote, the
fundamental principle of Athens, was correctly felt
to be, in combination with divine hubris, the cause
of the frenzy which seized the republic. And so it was.
One man, one vote had to wait no less than 22 centuries,
until the French republic, to be tried again. Is that
what America wants?

THE US CONSTITUTION IS 100% LAIC AND SECULAR:

The US became great because of its Constitution, not because it had pledged allegiance. Just the opposite. The American revolutionaries rejected any form of allegiance. The US republic was a religiously laic and secular set of institutions. Those institutions put the US ahead of its time. The founders of the USA did NOT take guidance from absurdities written in Babylon 23 centuries ago. They found their inspiration in their age (saeculum).

The preamble of the US Constitution holds in just one laic and secular sentence:

"WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in order to form
a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic
tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty
to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish
this Constitution for the United States of America."

"WE THE PEOPLE" is in gigantic capital letters, dwarfing
the words "United States," themselves in capital letters,
and themselves much larger than the letters in the rest
of the text which are in Carolingian minuscule. None
of this depiction of words and letters in spectacularly
different scales and characters was left to chance:
the US Constitutional convention worked, and debated,
very hard, through the spring and summer of 1787. If
the Constitutional convention wrote "WE THE PEOPLE"
in gigantic letters, it is that it wanted to make clear
the point the PEOPLE was GIGANTIC, much larger than
even the "United States".

"WE THE PEOPLE" is loudly laic (that is what laic
means: "of the people"). "Do ordain and establish" is
pure secularism: it is about the present time -1787.
Proclaiming "WE THE PEOPLE" is not proclaiming some
mythology, it’s not about the hallucinations people
dead for millennia may have had. The US Constitution
is not about a god, or a flag, but about "WE THE PEOPLE
… ordaining and establishing", NOW.

Please remember that, at the time, the rest of the
planet was crawling UNDER divinities, authorities, pledges
and allegiances. If someone had pledged to be a Muslim,
for example, and then decided otherwise, the punishment,
for breaking that pledge, was death (and still is).
The framers of the US Constitution carefully avoided
the obsolete and oppressive world of flags, symbols,
gods, and pledges to superior authorities UNDER which
the people was supposed to be. The French people followed
the American people in this Constitutional rebellion
against gods, flags, and pledges of allegiances to superior
authorities, within two years.

THE "NEO CONSERVATIVE" AMERICA: PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE,
CALLING FOR GOD'S GOOD GRACES, AND OTHER OFFICIAL HUMILIATIONS
AND SUPERSTITIONS:

Starting in 1955, laws were signed (by Eisenhower)
putting America "under God". "IN GOD WE TRUST" was written
on the US currency, and became the new motto of the
American republic. It was also decided that a US judge
taking office had to finish his oath with "SO HELP ME
GOD" (Title 28, Sec. 453 and Title 5, Sec. 16, United
States code). The code has "SO HELP ME GOD" in capital
letters, as if it were more important than the rest
of the oath the judge has to take, which is in Carolingian
minuscule. This makes it very clear that judges, in
Neo Conservative America, are supposed to view justice
as second to "God". This is one more violation of the
First Amendment to the Constitution (see below).
"God" is everywhere in America. The Supreme Court, the
US Congress and US Senate start the day with prayers,
as if they were in feudal Saudi Arabia. The US Congress
has an official "chaplain" with a taxpayer budget of
about 300,000 US$. And so on.

AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILDREN PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE.
NOT JUST THAT, BUT THEY PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO A CONTRAPTION
AND A "GOD":

Every morning millions of children in American public
schools are compelled to stand up at attention, and
say in unison, their hand on their heart, as they look
up to the American flag: "I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE to the
FLAG of the United States of America and to the Republic
for which it stands, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all." American schoolchildren
did not have to pledge allegiance before a half century
ago.

THE ATTEMPT TO THROW THE PLEDGE OUT:

One courageous father protested that his 8 year old
daughter had to pledge allegiance, and some enlightened
judges in California agreed with him that religious
indoctrination in public schools violated the US Constitution.
The neo conservatives were of course unhappy with this
attempt to make allegiance and religion less fundamental
in America, and the case went to the US Supreme Court.
Bryer, one of the "Justices" coldly observed: "(the
pledge of allegiance) is not perfect, but it serves
a purpose of unification, and has the small price of
offending a few people like you". Justice Bryer apparently
never heard about price inflation. Pledging was "a small
price", in Rome, initially. But the price grew in Rome,
as the decades passed, and within a bit more than a
century it had become so great that ALLEGIANCE HAD DISPLACED
FREEDOM.

AS THE ROMAN REPUBLIC DECLINED AND FELL, PEOPLE WERE
INCITED TO PLEDGE:

The pledge of allegiance started in Rome, towards
the end of the Republic. Rome was becoming an empire.
It was not much of a republic anymore: the Senate, i.e.
the Rich, was leading the people by the nose. Rome’s
main business was now to go to exotic countries, kill
the resistance and enslave the inhabitants, and then
bring back the riches to the richest of Romans (if that
reminds you of Halliburton, and the like, you are not
pledging allegiance enough!). The power endowed with
the legions was awesome, and getting harder to control,
as the army became thoroughly professional. Legionnaires
were compelled to pledge, in the hope of making them
more obedient to their generals. Standing straight up,
voicing in unison, left hand on their heart, like American
children, they pledged to the Eagle and the Republic
for which it stood. Allegiance increased. Soon the legionnaires
followed their generals around like obedient dogs, and
the republic fell.

A sort of republic survived, or so the generals claimed,
because the Senate, the fist of the richest, was still
powerful, and would remain so for nearly six centuries.
But the military force the Roman Senate and its generals
had abused the world with, had long been turned against
Rome herself. The whole adult population was increasingly
viewed with suspicion by the government, since it did
not pledge allegiance enough. At the end of a judicial
inquiry, suspects were made to pledge allegiance, just
to make sure they were good citizens. Except for Jews
and other hopelessly obdurate types, who were exempt
on national-religious grounds. Christians, since they
were not viewed as nationally defined, were not exempt
from pledging, and when they obstinately refused to
pledge after a judicial inquiry, they risked capital
charges for sedition.

THE FRANKS, SUCCESSORS TO DICTATORIAL ROME, BEING
THE FREE, REFUSED TO PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE:

When the Roman dictatorship added the further terror
twist of Christianity, it became smothering to the point
of dysfunctional senility (as Franks pointed out at
the time). In the western empire, the Roman leadership
passed to the pagan Franks, a small but fierce, clever
and life loving group, all things Christians were not.
The Franks kept many ideas of Rome, but pledging was
not of them. The Franks imagined themselves as direct
descendants of the most ancient of the Greeks, and so
they were free, as the name they selected for themselves
suggest (the Frenks = the Free).
Germanic oaths were from one man to another, and were
not transitive (X to Y, and Y to Z did not imply X to
Z). The Germanic ideal of freedom was incompatible with
system wide pledging.

THE NAZIS BROUGHT THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE BACK:

Mimicking imperial Rome brought Nazis to ecstasy.
The Reich was going to last 1,000 years. So the Nazis
reintroduced pledging on a massive scale to help in
this "unification".
"When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come to your
side,‘ I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already…
What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however,
now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will
know nothing else but this new community.’" (Adolf Hitler,
November 6, 1933).
Instead of disrupting the schools further, the Nazis
introduced an institution called the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend).
At the age of ten, after tests in athletics, camping
and Nazified history, a youngster passed into the Jungvolk
where the following pledge of allegiance was taken:
"In the presence of this blood FLAG, which represents
our Fuehrer, I SWEAR to devote all my energies and my
strength to the savior of our country, Adolf Hitler.
I am willing and ready to give up my life for him, SO
HELP ME GOD. " A question immediately comes to mind:
was that the same God as in America, or a related God?
If so, caution maybe required. It is not too clear.
The Swastika, a cross, supposed among other things,
to represent the God Thor's rotating hammer, had been
used by several famous mythologies, all the way to Greece,
and India, where it represented Kali (and, therefore,
apartheid).
Whatever that God really was, he was all over Nazi Germany,
a faithful overseer. Gott mit Uns! Unter Gott! Flag
idolatry was big in Nazi Germany, and so was the cross,
and pledging to God. Was that serving the "purpose of
unification" well enough? Was it just "a small price
to pay"? The rest of the world made it a heavy price
to pay.

HOW US PRESIDENTS VIOLATE THE US CONSTITUTION AS
THEY TAKE OFFICE:

The US Constitution requires from a new president
"the following Oath or Affirmation: -'I do solemnly
swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the
Office of the President of the United States, and will
to the best of my Ability, PRESERVE, protect and defend
the Constitution of the United States.'" (Article 2,
section I, US Constitution). Please observe that:
1) the "oath or affirmation" is not supposed to be on
a mystical book, hence not on the Bible, and 2) "So
Help me God", the utterance the Nazis loved so much,
since it made them feel good about themselves and their
mission, is ABSENT from the US "Oath or Affirmation."
It could be therefore argued that any US President uttering
"So Help me God", as if he were a Nazi, is in violation
of the US Constitution, right here and then, because
the US President, by saying more than the Constitution
asks for in the "Oath or Affirmation", is saying something
else.

WHY "PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE" WOULD BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL
IN ANY TRUE DEMOCRACY:

In a true democracy, the people (demos) rules (kratos).
That is the bottom line, and the end of the story. This
is in contradiction with allegiance. Americans are supposed
to rule. How could they pledge allegiance to whatever,
or whoever?

TO WHOM DOES A RULER PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE?

A ruler does not pledge allegiance; such is the definition
of what a ruler is. A ruler rules. Somebody who pledges
allegiance is not a ruler. It's a vassal, or a serf.
Such a vassal is ruled by the one he has pledged allegiance
to. At school, children, in a democracy, should be taught
to be rulers, because that is what they are to be, in
a true democracy. Children, in a democracy should not
learn to pledge allegiance. Or are American children
taught allegiance early because, in America, it is not
actually the people who rules, but somebody else? If
so, who? Halliburton? Blackwater Security? News Corp?
Chevron? When asked about the constitutional nature
of the Third Reich, Goebbels only half jokingly called
it a "total democracy". Not to be confused with a true
democracy. In toto the Reich was ruled by some big corporations
(Krupp, IG Farben, IBM, etc.).

ONLY OFFICERS SHOULD PLEDGE:

The US President, of course, should pledge allegiance
to WE THE PEOPLE. The President is an employee, chief
of the executive branch, a glorified CEO. But the CEO
of a democracy is just an employee of WE THE PEOPLE.
He is not a ruler. THAT is what is being forgotten when
WE THE PEOPLE is asked to learn to pledge allegiance.
Establishing a conditioned reflex of allegiance in the
children of a "democracy" is to make it so that "they
will know nothing else" as Hitler was saying. The essence
of the Reich was the Patriot Act (sorry, it was called
the "Enabling Act"), giving full powers to the Chief
to go out make war, a few referenda, a cowardly judiciary,
and pledges of allegiance from children and the SS.
Why would one want to run that show again?

PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE "UNDER GOD" CONTRADICTS THE FIRST
AMENDMENT TO THE US CONSTITUTION:

The first amendment to the US Constitution starts thus:
"CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT
OF RELIGION …"
If congress shall make no such law, why should schools
be allowed to behave as if such a law existed? Actually,
June 14, 1954, Congress unanimously ordered the inclusion
of "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. "Under God"
is a clear religious establishment of a particular MYTHOLOGY.
"In God we Trust" was signed July 30, 1956 by Eisenhover
as national motto of the US (Public Law 84-851). The
year before another law had put it all over the currency.
As we saw, "So Help me God" is for judges.

It reminds one of the situation after the US Civil
War, when racism was tolerated, even in the laws, although
racism was unconstitutional.

In Hitler's Third Reich murder was not constitutional.
There were no laws allowing for the massacres of civilians.
Actually German military laws forbid murdering civilians.
Still, it happened massively. Why? Most of the genocidal
and homicidal activity in the Reich happened on an extra
constitutional basis. There was a total failure of the
judicial establishment, even the Nazi judicial establishment,
to enforce respect of the constitution, even the Nazi
constitution, if one can speak of such a thing. Why
so? Because violating the constitution was viewed "as
a small price to pay for unification, and it only offended
a small number of people". We have heard the likes of
Justice Bryer, they were all over the Third Reich.

A CLEAR AND PRESENT REASON TO MAKE CHILDREN PLEDGE
ALLEGIANCE:

On Thursday, April 8, 2004, the US Department of Defense
confirmed the death of a further 14 American soldiers
in the Iraq war. Two of those fourteen were 20 years
old. Two were 19 years old. FOUR were 18 years old.
Children. That is one of the reasons why American children
have to learn to pledge allegiance early. So they are
ready to die as they go kill, at 18, and all of America
feels that is good, even sacred, for the flag, under
God. Amen.

In Hitler's last picture, he is seen decorating a
16 year old soldier, in a whole detachment of children.
The Romanian dictator Caucescu was defended by a guard
of children. They fought to death, and had to be put
out like rabid dogs. Children don't know any better,
as Hitler pointed out. Adults who make children pledge
allegiance, well, history has not enough contempt for
them. Is that what America wants to be remembered for?

DOES PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE EXPLAIN THE POOR PERFORMANCE
OF AMERICAN SCHOOLS?

Myths appeal to the lesser educated, as a way to short
circuit the power of the highly educated. Myths make
factually based knowledge and wisdom irrelevant, leveling
the field for the ignorant. By pledging to God’s greater
glory every morning, American children are encouraged
to learn nothing else during the rest of the day. After
all, first thing in the morning, they were put under
God. Why then, to be taught by simple humans? Does not
God know better? Is the Pledge of Allegiance then why
American school children performance goes down further
with every year of schooling, relative to the rest of
the world? Are American schools like Madrassas (Koranic
schools), under God? If one is "under God" on a personal
basis, why to mess up with whatever human teachers think?

WHO IS THIS GOD AMERICA IS SUPPOSEDLY UNDER?

"Under God" does not mean "Under Buddha", it does
not mean "Under Confucius". It means under the Christian
God, US officials are plenty clear about that. Millions
of Christians killed each other about the precise definition
of their God (starting in 4C). Modern theologians are
more placid, and widely view Allah and "God" as the
same divinity. So "Under God" means "Under Allah". Are
US Presidents uniquely qualified to know what is evil,
because they pledged allegiance to Allah in school every
morning during their entire childhood? Is it why they
employed, to cause mischief, religiously fanatic Saudis,
including bin Laden, for so long, and why fundamentalist
religious thermonuclear rogue Pakistan is still their
best friend in 2004 CE? Should American presidents,
since they pledged allegiance to Allah, not defer more
to Ayatollahs and Imams? After all, Imams are the professionals
of God. Allah is so merciful He comforted those who
aimed their planes at the World Trade Center, and made
them strong. Is that why American children pledge allegiance
to God every morning? They want to be strong too? But,
then, perhaps we got it all wrong, and Neo America is
so special, it has its own God, as Athens did? If Neo
America is ordained and established by its own God,
is Neo America so important, that whatever the rest
of the world thinks does not matter? Good question all
of these.

It is hard to get out from under them, except by observing
that God, actually is neither mentioned, nor alluded
to, nor a fortiori described in the US Constitution.
Because such questions cannot be answered, except by
lunatics.

America-under-God has pledged allegiance to its own
God, and is now on a mission from God-of-America. Like
Athens was with Athena. Being God struck made the Athenian
democracy mad with hubris.
The Founding Fathers did not know God from nothing at
all. The US Constitution has no God, and made a point
to be UNDER NOTHING. This was the point of the US Constitution,
and it is our point entirely; under nothing, not even
"under God". The First Amendment made it even more explicit
that God is explicitly forbidden in any law. So God
should be removed from the American republican institutions
entirely.

WHY THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE IS MILITARILY UNWISE:

Material, cultural, scientific, philosophical and political
riches are distributed in an unequal way around the
planet. Massive global ressources profit a lucky few.
Most of mankind can view itself as deprived. There is
a great danger that this unbalance leads to violence,
especially mythically based violence. Muslim terrorism
is just one example.
The USA spends more on the military than the rest of
the planet combined, and has soldiers in most countries.
That can be viewed as a form of violence, and so it
is, by most of the world's population. When the USA
claims to be "Under God", and under various forms of
idolatry, it makes that appearance of American violence,
a mythologically justified violence, the very worst
type, because reason cannot fight it with anything,
but a greater viciousness. In other words, the USA is
already using the sort of violence that the USA itself
would find the hardest to contain. It is then teaching
its own enemies what it would take to bring it down!
Justice Bryer thinks mythology is "a small price to
pay for unification". Does that mean Bryer does not
know that unification should not be a problem in a republic?
The problem, in a true republic, is exterior enemies,
and, as America goes worldwide to fight "Under God",
America is giving its numerous enemies the most precious
gift: a reason to fight it that anyone can understand.

CONCLUSION:

Religious mythology is the wrong sort of way to TIE
AGAIN (re-ligare), for the most advanced countries,
because it looks backwards. The framers of the US Constitution
correctly perceived this. They perceived that the way
to TIE AGAIN the USA was through LAICITY (the people)
and SECULARISM (the age). Not through God, flag, and
allegiance to higher ups. The US Constitution says that
WE THE PEOPLE is guided by furthering happiness, justice,
tranquility… When people who are mad with God get onto
planes, we have all seen what can happen. What about
people being mad with God getting to the US Presidency?
Why would anyone believe that the world would be a better
place by encouraging God madness every morning, in the
minds of millions of US children? Saudi Arabia is a
country which has encouraged God madness for longer
than the USA. Most of the fanatics who crashed planes
on Sept 11 came from God crazy Saudi Arabia. One of
their aims was to show America that Allah as they understand
it was superior to God as America understands it. Do
we want to pursue that arcane mythological debate? Do
we want to tell them, 'No, ours is bigger than yours,
we are even crazier'? Or do we want to tell them that
we are a democracy, and democracy is not about pledging
to God, and the flag, but that instead democracy is
about WE THE PEOPLE finding ways and means to agree
about, through thoughtful, factually based debate?

Sixteen centuries ago, the pagan Franks forced bishops
to behave, and let education be free again. Although
slavery may have been ordained by God, as the Fathers
of the Church and Islam thought, the Franks ordained
and established that slavery was unconstitutional: out
with God, in with justice and equity. This is where
the US comes from, although they do not know it. The
US Constitution was not the first effort to ordain and
establish laicity and secularism. Our civilization is
made of such efforts.

Today's Neo Conservative America is unconstitutional
because of generalized religionism, a cancer the Founding
Fathers had been careful to extirpate. Pledging allegiance
is unbecoming a democracy. In a democracy, the people
rule. It is not yesterday's God which rules, but today's
people. By telling children otherwise, one teaches them
the most basic principle of democracy wrong. Forcing
American children to pledge allegiance to a flag under
God goes a long way to explain America's increasing
disregard for the rest of mankind. By the time an eighteen
year old child soldier of America is killed in Iraq,
he has pledged to the flag of God-of-America thousands
of times, but the rest of the world views him with contempt
no pledged American could ever understand. The SS, Hitler's
million strong elite killer army, finished their oath
with "So Help me God". Is not that alarming enough?
Is not that enough to show that mixing religionism and
politics put souls in a coma? Why would we need another
demonstration? OK, it's useful for unquestioned world
conquest. But is that what America really wants? Certainly
the drafters of the US Constitution would not have wanted
it. They were not a peaceful lot, but they were not
insane, either. Far from it.

Some Americans have come to see pledging as "traditional".
Many Romans also accepted the "tradition" of pledging
allegiance as imperial minds replaced republican minds.
THE EMPIRE PLEDGED ALLEGIANCE. THAT IS WHAT EMPIRES
DO. The Romans and the Franks were perfectly aware of
that, the first to embrace it, in the name of empire,
the second to reject it, in the name of freedom (we
are having this debate, to this day). The imperial government
thought pledging was a 'small price to pay'. The Romans
increasingly found themselves unable to solve problems,
because they had pledged their brains to higher authority.
Problems were left for the Roman army to solve. The
army was all about pledging allegiance, so it tried
to force everybody to pledge allegiance some more. Finally
the army chose just one God, and imposed Catholic terror,
under God, and the penalty of death (382 CE). The empire
immediately collapsed. Not that it was worth saving.

That is what happened to Rome. Nearly five centuries
elapsed between the rise of pledging in the Roman legions
to the collapse "Under God". But the initial collapse
of civism due to the replacement of freedom by the pledging
allegiance took only three or four generations during
a still functioning republic. The Gracchi observed at
the time that free citizens were increasingly turned
into a state of destitution "worse than wild beasts",
as the rich were getting richer. Making the citizens
pledge allegiance, as if they were now to be obedient
dogs, stabilized the situation, and allowed the rich
to get even richer. Is that what America wants, as it
violates its own US Constitution with its "neo conservative"
God madness? Or has America already become too much
of an army of pledging monkeys to distinguish wisdom
from madness?